I didn’t think I’d find myself agreeing with Robert Winston about the labelling of medication, indicating whether its development has involved animal testing. I come from the standpoint that if people are given the plain and unpalatable truth about what they consume maybe they would be inspired to take control and make some lifestyle changes and stop an over reliance on quick fixes.

I suspect Dr Winston’s standpoint is quite different. I would imagine his approach is ‘carry on with the medication but don’t bleat about the poor little bunny rabbits’. It’s a very dangerous road this one: in modern, ‘westernised’ societies it’s almost inevitable that you’ll be put on some kind of medication at some point in your life. And those figures rocket the older you get. Well, as patients we’re a bit of a nuisance, aren’t we? And there’s so many of us. The only way these poor hard pressed doctors can cope is to start writing the prescription before we can get a couple of words out. What the patient actually needs could be just a listening ear or advice on lifestyle but more often than not we’re turned into ‘legit junkies’. And with any kind of junkie it’s a dangerous and frightening road you take when deciding to do without your fix. Which is precisely what could happen if ‘tested on animals’ labelling goes ahead.

And Dr Winston knows this only too well. He’s a nasty, arrogant, big bag of moustachioed bile who cares for neither animals nor humans and whose only concern is to get his face on telly and perpetuate the notion that it’s everyone’s alienable right to produce a sprog however much time and money this costs his beloved NHS. Maybe he should spend more time and effort working on how we can all live in a sustainable and healthy way without over reliance on drugs. Or perhaps look at the field of non-animal testing which by its very nature is less wasteful and more relevant to human health. Or maybe address the issue of overpopulation? Hardly, as Dr Winston has grown very rich and influential making himself the nemesis of all these concerns. Let’s hope senility kicks in quite soon, then he can self-medicate and assume a dribbling, catatonic state in a dark corner of the House of Lords and we won’t have to put up with his offensive ravings any longer!